Do The Jerk

For the first time in nearly 50 years, I just listened to The Capitols' Top 20 hit from 1966: Cool Jerk.  It's about The Jerk, a dance craze that was sweeping the nation when I was in the sixth grade. For a brief, shining moment in the mid-1960s there were a number of pop songs about The Jerk. In recent days I've listened to many of them. In doing so I noticed certain common themes, including: 

• The Twine, another dance craze from the same era,

• Long Tall Sally, and 

• Going to a party where one learns a new dance. 

All of this and much more is explained below.

"Mickey's East Coast Jerk" by The Larks (1965) is the tune that started my search for Jerk-related music. Little did I know how deep this journey would take me. Built around a pounding blues riff, the chorus grabbed me at age 11 and would not let go, in part because of the juxtaposition of the words "work" and "jerk." As anyone who was 11 years old in 1965 will tell you, "work" in this context is a verb, a command  meaning "to dance vigorously." It sounds strenuous. 

Almost as memorable was The Larks' earlier effort, “The Jerk” (1964) -- but for a different reason.  At the time I thought it was one of the strangest songs I’d ever encountered. A languorous mid-tempo number with a broken beat and no danceable rhythm, it’s sung entirely in a wailing falsetto. At certain points, two falsettos harmonize. Weird, particularly when compared to the thumping Beatles and Dave Clark Five songs everyone was listening to at the time. 

The Capitols' lead singer proclaims himself the king of the Cool Jerk in the 1966 song of the same name. That's quite a distinction. This gem features a very cool proto-rap spoken part, followed by a drum and bass breakdown. The title "Cool Jerk" is a sanitized reference to a scandalous Detroit variant of the Jerk known as the Pimp Jerk.  

Ronnie and the Pomona Casuals recorded an entire long-playing album of songs about The Jerk, with titles such as Do The Jerk, Everybody Jerk, Slow Jerk, and I Wanna Do the Jerk. All are still available online. 

The Swim was yet another dance craze of the mid-1960s. In “C’mon and Swim,” Bobby Freeman begins with the exhortation “Come on everybody, come on in." Is he inviting us to a party, or a dip in his swimming pool? The song refers to a dance of the same period which I haven't thought about in a long time: The Hully Gully, which in turn was the origin of "Woolly Bully." That song never made any sense to me until I learned about the Hully Gully connection. "The Swim" was written by Sylvester Stewart, who later formed a band called Sly and The Family Stone, played at Woodstock, and descended into drug abuse and erratic behavior.

“Agent Double-O Soul” (Edwin Starr) does both The Jerk and The Twine. I must confess I’ve never heard of The Twine, except in these songs. Intriguingly, about midway through, Starr tells us:

There once was a fella/ Who was down on the rock and roll/ He couldn’t get himself together/ He didn’t have no kind of soul. 

How awful. But Agent Double-O Soul sets him straight.

Both The Twine and The Jerk reappear in Junior Walker and the All Stars’ “Shotgun,” one of my all-time favorite rhythm and blues songs. “Do the Jerk now,” Junior urges. Later, "It's Twine time." Meanwhile the guitarist seems to know only one chord, which he repeats endlessly. But it's a great chord.

In “Barefootin’” by Robert Parker, we find another common theme: going to a party. Wild, abandoned dancing ensues. Long Tally Sally throws away her wig and high sneakers too. She's doin' a dance without any shoes. "Everybody take off your shoes," Parker commands in a gruff, challenging tone. "We doin' a barefoot thang." 

“Short Fat Fanny,” written and performed by Larry Williams, features a double-barrelled reference to two of our themes: Long Tall Sally, and going to a party. Williams is tired of Long Tall Sally. That's when he met Short Fat Fanny. The lyrics themselves are ingeniously constructed from the titles of early rock and roll hits. For example, Williams tells us, describing Short Fat Fanny: "She watch me like a hound dog everywhere I go," and "She's my big fat tutti frutti." Johnny Winter (yes, he’s still alive) did a great cover version on his most recent album. That’s what lead me to the original. Williams was an interesting character. Among other things, he was Little Richard’s heroin dealer, and led a life that “mixed tremendous success with violence and drug addiction,” as you’ll learn here:

Link: Larry Williams.

“A Groove Will Make You Move” by The Jimmy Castor Bunch comes from another era, that of 1970s funk/disco. It's included here because it continues our “went to a party” theme. But it takes us much deeper. This party is “way across town,” requiring a daring late-night journey into unknown territory. At this party, everybody is gettin’ down. Even better, all the women are outa sight. 

Finally, we have Rufus Thomas’ “Do the Funky Chicken.” It’s another dance craze tune, and it has a much tougher rockin’ tone than I realized at the time. The Funky Chicken is a dance that makes Rufus "wanna do somethin' nasty." Listening to this today, this man clearly had more talent than I gave him credit for way back in 1969. He had a sense of humor as well.